One Family
by We Love Mobward Contest
Summary: "Are you hitting on me? I've broken into your house, killed your guards, maimed your pretty face and shot you, and you're trying to hit on me?" She shook her head with a muttered 'unbelievable' under her breath.


**Story Title:** One Family

 **Summary:** "Are you hitting on me? I've broken into your house, killed your guards, maimed your pretty face and shot you, and you're trying to hit on me?" She shook her head with a muttered 'unbelievable' under her breath.

 **Pairing:** Edward/Bella

 **Rating:** Mature for violence and the like.

 **Word Count: 8,893**

 **Disclaimer: All things Twilight belong solely to Stephenie Meyer. No copyright infringement is intended**

One Family

A knock on the door to my office pulled me from my thoughts and I barked out for whoever it was to enter. Jasper, my brother-in-law and closest friend, moved into the office and dropped down into the chair across from me. He was silent as he looked at me. I hated when he did that. It was almost as if he knew what people were feeling. It was good for roughing guys up but I hated when he did it to me.

"Knock it off," I huffed and poured us each a glass of whiskey.

"Little early for this, don't you think?" He raised an eyebrow but took the drink willingly.

"Why don't you tell me why you're here instead of berating my choices." I slammed the glass down, nearly cracking it.

"Well, I know Black didn't have the information you wanted, everyone warned me you were sour sitting up here." He paused but continued on, "Tonight, Emmett is supposed to meet with Peter, who's bringing in the newest shipment from the docks, straight from Ireland."

Guns were guns, but when they came straight from Ireland, that was some straight up IRA shit going on. We were loyal to the cause, no doubt. We were Irish first, organized crime second. Last time Peter brought a shipment in himself, I lost five guys because the Volturi family had heard of the delivery and decided they wanted it for themselves.

Black was a snitch; he wasn't loyal to anyone but himself. He did what he needed to do, when he needed to do it. He worked with the cops, the feds, the rival families, anyone, to accomplish his goal. His information was normally good, but this time it wasn't. I wanted to know who the trigger man was, who took out my guys the last time Peter was in town. When Black didn't have the information, I was a little pissed and may have shot off his pinkie. I was pretty sure it was lying underneath Jasper's chair as we spoke. I gave Black until the next shipment to have some information for me or he'd be losing more than just his fingers.

"Emmett can't go alone. Send him a few guys, just in case." I waved my hand to dismiss him and Jasper knew better than to argue with me.

I wasn't getting anything done in the office besides obsessing over the Volturi and their possible attack, so I decided to cut out before I got caught in some other bullshit from the lower guys. Petty squabbles over hundreds of dollars or someone fucking someone else's wife was not my problem. This was organized crime, not high school.

The shipment went off without a hitch, but Peter let it be known he was going to be making more trips this way and was expecting us to help him distribute. It was fine with me, meant more money in my pocket, but it also meant more opportunities for the Volturi family to get the jump on us.

The Volturi family was notorious. They were the dirtiest of the dirtiest. We ran guns, they ran dope, pills—any drug you could think of, they were manufacturing, distributing and trafficking. Worse than that, they sold girls of any age into human trafficking circuits, never to be heard of again. I wasn't self-righteous by any means—I've killed plenty of people before, my first coming when I was sixteen years old—but even I had limits to the extent of illegal activities I'd be part of.

It didn't help that amongst the Volturi there wasn't a lick of loyalty. Each member of the family believed someone else should be in charge, someone else was screwed over, and that certain members deserved more credit than they were given. It was possible a son or nephew could kill a higher up member of their family, just to take their spot. No loyalty. That was the difference between us and them. Our family would die for each other—we'd done it many times over—and would never allow anything to happen to the innocent members of our family. The women and the children had always been off limits when it came to any forms of retaliation within my organization. You got beef with the old man, don't take it out on his old lady and don't fuck his chick on the side either. Stay classy.

Two months went by without any word from Black and I was ready to pull my hair out by the roots. My shipments had been ambushed the last two weeks, and while I hadn't lost any men, I'd lost almost a third of product. That didn't sit well with me.

I couldn't find Black, but my piranhas were anxiously awaiting their next meal, because he had a date with them. Not only did he not get me my information in the allotted time period, but he was dodging me and hiding as well.

Trying to relax some, I decided to run on the treadmill that sat in the middle of my home gym, pushing myself to my limit. Sweat was pouring down my bare chest and before I realized it I had run five miles, so I powered down the machine. It had slowed down to almost a crawl when I felt a knife at my throat and a gun barrel at my back. Instinctively, I reached out for the arm of the attacker.

"You move, hell, you breathe and I'll slit your throat," her voice was angelic but the words that came out of her mouth were anything but.

"Look, I don't know who you are or what you want, but I'll give you a free pass. You leave now and I won't have my guards kill you for breaking into my house," I nearly growled out.

"Not happening. I've been waiting my whole life for this moment. Notorious Cullen." She sneered my surname and her knife nicked my Adam's apple.

"Easy, princess. There are a lot easier ways for me to make your dreams come true, you didn't have to resort to violence," I cooed at her in my most seductive voice.

"Keep it in your pants, fucker. You took something from me, so now I'm going to take something from you." Her hands weren't the steadiest, so I wondered if she'd done this before, on top of wondering who the hell she was. "Does the name Swan mean anything to you?"

The barrel of her gun pushed into my kidney and I let out a yelp. I knew the Swan name, but I didn't know what this had to do with right now.

"All the Swans are dead, what's it to you?" I didn't want to hurt this girl before knowing why she was in my house, but her shaking hand was about to get me killed before I got my answers and she got hers.

"Wrong. So wrong." She moved her knife and dragged it down my cheek, I felt the skin split and hissed out a few choice words. "The Volturi are taking over the Irish guns. You show up again to get them, and you're all dead. You've been warned."

I was boiling with anger. Close to snapping, I growled, "Who the fuck are you to issue a Volturi warning?"

"Me? Oh, I'm sure you've heard of me, I'm Isabella, Isabella Swan." She literally cackled, patted my cheek where she'd cut me, smearing the blood down my face and danced away. "Next time I see you, Cullen, only one of us is walking away."

I didn't know what that crazy bitch's issue was with me, but I needed to find out.

My security team in the house had all been shot at and disarmed; two were dead. Unsurprisingly, Jasper and Emmett insisted that one of them would be with me at all times, from that point on.

When Black showed up at the club where I kept my office a few days later, Jasper nearly shot him. I sat down in my chair with a sigh and lit a cigarette. Black came bearing information.

"Boss, you're never gonna believe this," Black spoke, giddily like a child would be. "I have the best news for you."

I waved for him to continue and hoped he wasn't just putzing around.

"Look, Boss, the Swans, they were a big deal way back when. It was like forever ago." Black looked at Jasper then at Emmett before he took the seat down between the two.

The Swan family's New York reign hadn't been that long ago. I remember it well because it was when I first started working for Grandfather. He and Charlie Swan had a mutual respect for each other and tried to avoid stepping on each other's toes.

"So I guess Charlie, that's the Swan guy, he had a daughter. A girl, Boss. No boy, just a girl." I had my lunch sitting on the table, untouched, and Black eyed it like he hadn't eaten in a month. He was constantly eating whenever anyone saw him.

"But uh, well I guess her Mom was popped and no one knows how or who did it." Black shrugged not elaborating much further.

I let out a sigh and pushed the plate of food toward him, and he perked right up. In between bites he spoke, "Then I guess Charlie ended up down with the fishes in the Hudson. Some say you guys killed Swan, others say he killed himself, nobody knows the exact truth."

"So, how did the Swan girl end up with the Volturi?" I was losing my patience with Black and was ready to cap his kneecaps and watch him crawl out of my office.

"Guess she was adopted or something," he shrugged and let out a large belch. "Heard she might be marrying one of those Volturi creeps. Dunno which one though."

Every two days, Black showed up, asking for lunch in return for at least some information. The first time he returned he told tales of the Volturi boasting about taking out our members. How they sat, drinking and smoking, with plenty of women at their disposal as they spoke of which of our women they'd like to bed. Which then would lead to a conversation about which Cullen would be the most fun to kill.

The second time that week, he regaled us with tales from within the Volturi organization, of two higher up soldiers who weren't on board with a lot of Volturi practices as of late. This didn't help me any, but Black seemed confident.

"If they don't like the Volturi anymore, maybe they'll help me with some kind of information for you, Boss. I'll find out." Black was gone as soon as the food was, each and every time he visited. He was paid well for his information but always got his extra compensation of food.

The next time I saw Black that week he let me know the Swan girl had a meeting for her "Uncle Aro" in the city, some kind of charity-type gig early the next week.

"Guess Marcus was the one that adopted her," Black had said during his lunch. "She's deadly though, that's what those two guys I know said. They couldn't take her in a fight."

I knew all about how deadly she could be, but Black didn't need me to confirm his story. Marcus was the second son of the former head of the Volturi family. His brother Aro, had been born eighteen months before him.

"Did you hear that Aro killed their father just so he could be in charge of the whole family?" Black had said in passing once, before this mess with the Swan girl started.

That had helped confirm the rumor my grandfather had told me many years ago, while I was still a foot soldier. Marcus was the more humane of the two, but he was still hostile. He didn't seek out destruction like his brother, but he'd as soon run over an old woman if she was in the way of his money.

When the time came for the meeting Black had told me about,I had my guys stake out the building opposite of where she would be. I could see every move she made from my vantage point, from the moment her car was parked, to the place her meeting was supposed to take place. I would see everything, without being seen myself.

When I had seen her for the first time, well when she wasn't trying to murder me in my own home, she was beyond any kind of perfection I could imagine. I'd never seen a woman like her. She had soft, plump lips, and long hair that looked like silk. I just wanted to wrap my hands in it while I devoured those lips. She walked with a sway of the hips and never once would you have known she had a gun pressed along her hipbone.

Her car pulled up, along with two other black sedans. She exited, taking the hand her driver offered. Her legs were the first thing I noticed. Even covered in long pants, you could see the curvy shape of her hips and down to her thighs. My first thought was what it would be like to feel them wrapped around my head while I devoured her. My second thought was cut short when a man jumped out of a taxi that had been parked on the curb, shot her driver there on the street and turned his gun on the Swan girl.

My hands itched to pull my own gun and get a good shot on him, but I couldn't risk it without hurting the girl. Plus, I wasn't keen to risk myself for anyone affiliated with the Volturi family. I needn't have worried. In the blink of an eye, the Swan girl elbowed the fucker that had a hold of her and had shot him three times point blank between the eyes. Men from the other cars surrounded her and ushered her off before he hit the ground. In the chaos, I lost sight of her and since then she's been underground.

Peter sent word soon after that he'd be stateside, and I knew better than to take chances after hearing the Swan girl's warning. Volturi wanted my guns? Let them try.

We were all on edge when it came time to meet with Peter, but I was thankful he wasn't alone. He'd brought his cousin Liam with him and they weren't traveling alone. We knew that if they were desperate about it, the Volturi could have tried to attack him at any point during his trip, cutting off our IRA connection and stopping any more shipments from making their way to our hands. They could realistically attack at any time, but we knew that the dock was where they were most likely to make a move.

I had my best shooters surrounding the dock at high vantage points, my strongest and biggest guys were helping Peter and Liam unload the guns, and nothing happened.

Then a month later, we did the same thing. I refused to become complacent about my position. I knew they were going to try and take me out and I wondered idly if they would send the Swan girl. Still, nothing happened out of the ordinary and we all breathed a sigh of relief.

For the next three months, my team extensively covered Peter and Liam's drop off of product. I refused to lose so much as one more magazine of ammunition or even a pin for a trigger to the Volturi scum. There had been no sightings of the Swan girl, Isabella. I really liked the way her name rolled off my tongue and used the image of her with her knife to my throat as inspiration for my late night masturbation sessions. It was sick. Hell, I was sick, but I didn't care, because I was going to fuck Isabella Swan at least once before I slit her throat for attempting to slit mine.

Word of the Volturi family on the street had all but dried up. Black had been missing since just before the first month we had our guys staked out around our shipments. The last bit of news I'd heard from Black was vague, even for him.

"Boss, my new friends, they said something about avoiding the easy kill and turning this into a game," here he made air quotes, "Seems more like war to me."

With that, Black was gone, and I'd never seen him again. I was willing to bet his new 'friends' had taken him out when they realized he was spreading everyone's information across the city like wildfire. I had no doubt that Black gave them information on me as well.

Without Black there was nothing coming in about their plans, no one could get us an advantage, so I did the only thing I thought would draw them out of hiding.

Emmett found some junkies that he knew bought solely from Volturi thugs. They were willing to do anything to get in the good graces of their dealers, so Emmett let them know that the top three members of the Cullen family would be in attendance, alone, for the next IRA shipment.

We figured that the Volturi family would think Emmett, Jasper and I were alone at the drop and ambush us. We had men on standby if something were to happen, but on the off chance they didn't try anything and they were just observing, we would seem to be completely alone. I knew at the very least the Swan girl would seek me out. She had some kind of problem with my family and I intended to find out what it was.

Peter met us on the dock near his boat. Standing on the bow, large arms crossed over his massive chest, he glanced around and then signaled us to help him unload. We were all on edge, every noise along the docks, every shift of the water, at least one of us pulled our guns from their holsters. Me, I liked the shoulder holsters concealing my guns under my suit jacket. Emmett liked to have his gun in the waistband of his pants and Jasper had both shoulder holsters and a small one around his ankle.

"Looking clear tonight, eh Cullen?" Peter's voice rang out into the night.

"Seems to be, Pete, when will we be seeing you again?" I made sure to open the crates, checking our shipment. I didn't think Pete would be one to rip me off, but I always liked to check to make sure nothing got tampered with in transit.

"If all goes well, should be back within the month." Peter's accent made certain words elongate and the pronunciation was something that had taken time to get used to. Of course, he claimed the chicks in New York City dug the accent whenever he went out before heading back home.

Just as I was about to answer him, I heard a pop, pop noise and looked around to find the source.

"Liam's been hit!" Peter's voice rang out in a panicked tone. He started rambling in what I could only assume was Gaelic.

Jasper, an expert marksman, raised his gun and let out two shots. Two men fell from the top of two of the stacked up cargo boxes along the pier. After that all hell broke loose.

We were swarmed by Volturi scum. They seemed to be everywhere and there was a constant ringing out of shots that seemed to never end.

"I'm out!" Emmett yelled.

It seemed like Peter finally snapped out of his trance with Liam and threw him an automatic glock that held almost a hundred rounds. With that, Emmett sprayed bullets through the line of Volturi foot soldiers making their way towards us.

They went down with a thud. Jokingly, I looked at Peter and said, "I need one of those for myself."

Just as I spoke, I was hit in the shoulder.

"Boss! Ed, you okay?" Jasper's normally calm voice was filled with concern.

"Just a flesh wound, I'm fine," I ground out, rolling my shoulder. Luckily I had been hit in my non-dominant arm and would still be able to shoot.

Emmett had let the rest of guys on standby know to make their way to us here on the docks. WIthin a minute our men, the grunt workers and smaller scale enforcers, worked through the Volturi from behind while Jasper, Emmett and I, along with Peter held them off and and away from the product.

A flash of chocolate brown hair, long, definitely feminine, caught my eye and I just knew it was her. I followed her around the corner of the cargo boxes and it was then that I finally came face to face with my beauty.

"Edward Cullen, I think I gave you fair warning about ending your relationship with the IRA. I told you this was Volturi territory, but you just couldn't let it go could you?" Her voice was like tinkling bells and a menacing blade at the same time.

"This is Cullen territory. You'll have to pry it from my cold, dead hands before I let any Volturi scum take residence in my neighborhood," I growled back, training my gun on her. I knew I wouldn't take the shot, but I sure as shit could hold her steady with my gun.

"How's the shoulder, Baby Cullen? Does it smart a little?" She let out a wicked cackle and I was torn between being scared for this woman's sanity and being completely turned on by her.

"Did you shoot me, baby girl?" I cooed at her in the same voice I'd used on her when she broke into my house.

"Just another reminder that I'm coming for you, Cullen," she smirked.

The gunshots kept ringing out around us, neither of us knowing which of our guys were hit, were dead, or who was winning in this melee of a fight.

"Why don't you tell me what I did to you, princess? That way I can correct it and we can leave this whole misunderstanding behind us and get to know each other a little better."

"Are you hitting on me? I've broken into your house, killed your guards, maimed your pretty face and shot you, and you're trying to hit on me?" She shook her head with a muttered 'unbelieveable' under her breath.

The next second, a chuckle came from behind her. She stood ramrod straight and her face became unreadable.

"Isabella, darling, what have I told you about playing with your food?" The distinctly Italian accent of Caius Volturi echoed off the shipping containers.

He placed a kiss to her neck and I let out a growl in response.

"Haven't you told him, Isa? How we plan to be wed in the summer?" Caius smirked at me, and Isabella, she shivered, but not in a pleasurable way. No, she seemed put off by him. "Now, Cullen, if you'd like to get out of here with your life, you should leave now."

Without thought, I shifted my aim from Isabella to Caius and shot him just between his neck and shoulder. It wasn't enough to kill him, but it was satisfying for me.

Isabella's eyes were wide and she looked torn between helping him and shooting me.

Caius shook off the hit, just as I had earlier, and walked behind the cargo holders. He was back a moment later, dragging something with him.

"Pete!" I called out, slightly shaken. He was beaten and weak. I didn't know if he had been shot, but he could barely move without help.

"Now, Cullen, no one will have any luck with the Irish." Caius pulled a knife from his side and dragged it across Pete's neck before I could react. I watched the life drain from my friend's eyes. Peter was more than a business associate, he was family.

Caius shoved Peter's body into the water without ceremony and reached for Isabella. "We need to go."

The sound of gunshots had died down by now, and I could hear Jasper and Emmett coming up behind me, yelling for me. Just as I lifted my gun to shoot Caius in the head, I was hit again, this time in the ribs. Caius had a devilish smirk on his face, but it was Isabella who had taken the shot.

Emmett let a few shots off towards the both of them but they were moving fast and he ended up hitting nothing. It was then the darkness started to take over and I could no longer catch my breath. The last thing I saw was Isabella being dragged away by Caius—but her eyes were trained on me.

Recovery came slow, a collapsed lung would do that to you. My shoulder hadn't been that bad. It was in a sling for less than two days before I got rid of it. Breathing was hard, moving was painful, and I just wanted to cut Caius Volturi's head off.

Jasper couldn't find anything on Isabella Swan, so we suspected the Volturi had her locked away in their compound, which meant I couldn't get to her. I was still torn between wanting to kiss her stupid and shooting her, at least once, for all the damage she'd done to me so far.

This chick has serious anger issues along with issues with my family. I put Jasper to work on finding any connection Isabella might have had with my family, but there was nothing. The only thing that we found was that my father, Carlisle, had been her mother's doctor when she'd come into the hospital. He'd actual delivered Isabella.

My father was an anomaly within this family. He wasn't a saint, but at the same time, he had no desire to be a complete sinner. He would still do things for the family when required. He always believed in family first. When Grandfather was murdered, my father should have taken over control of our family. Instead, my father insisted he wanted to maintain his position as a doctor and allowed me at barely twenty one, to take command of our entire family.

Word had come in from Emmett that Caius Volturi had been out on the town every night, boasting to anyone who would listen that his future wife had almost taken out the head of the Cullen family. Emmett also noted that girls flocked to him, and he'd gone home with no less than eight women in five nights.

"Boss?" Jasper's voice shook slightly as he spoke. I turned to look at him and he pointed silently to the monitors of our security system. "Someone's here."

The car was ostentatious and flashy, but no one I knew drove it.

"I'm here to speak with Cullen. I'll even leave all my weapons in the car. Just let me in," came the menacing yet sweet voice of Isabella Swan.

"Buzz her through," I commanded.

"Ed, look, man I don't think..." I cut Jasper's words off by pointing my gun to his head.

"My sister would like for her husband to meet their first born child, so how about you let me do the thinking and you just do the doing, eh?" I raised an eyebrow and he pushed the button allowing Isabella access, once again, to my home.

Jasper and Emmett made their way to the driveway while I stayed in the office. They would give her the once over, and once she was clear she could come back this way. I wasn't going to be caught off guard by her again.

Sitting atop my desk I waited impatiently for her to step through my doorway, but when she did, it became even harder to breathe. She stood before me in skin tight jeans, a small tank top that showed off her belly button, heels that made her legs seem longer if possible, and a leather jacket. I had to bite into my cheek to keep from moaning out loud.

"You done eye-fucking me?" She snapped me out of my haze and plopped down in the chair just in front of me. She was almost perfectly eye-level with my… "Obviously not, since you aren't listening to a word I'm saying."

I shook my head to clear it and let out a cough. "I'm so sorry, Miss Swan. See, I'm recovering from a few gunshot wounds, so it's sometimes hard to concentrate, and I sometimes have trouble catching my breath."

She let out the cutest snort I'd ever heard, then pulled a knife out of the side of her boot and ran it along my leg. "Look, Cullen, I don't want to hurt you. I don't. My whole body refuses to hurt you when all I want in my heart, in my brain, is to jab this into your heart, cut it from your body and take it home to my Uncle Aro as an appetizer for dinner."

"I thought Emmett and Jasper checked you over, you said you'd leave your weapons in the car." I didn't even flinch when she ran the blade over my leg.

"They didn't check my shoes. You really need to step up your security." She pulled the knife away, replacing it in her boot, and crossed her arms over her chest, pushing her breasts up just perfectly in her tank top. "I have questions and you're going to answer them. That's how this works."

"Whatever you want, sweetheart, you run this show." I waved my hand at her to continue and noticed Jasper and Emmett entering the office as well.

"They can stay. They may have more information than you." She let out a breath, turned her neck to crack it and then nodded. "Okay, the story of my life is something I've been told many times before, but I need to know, without bias, what you know about my family."

"Sweetheart," I paused when she growled at me, "Isabella, I've already told you. The only thing I knew about the Swans was that they were all dead and that proved not to be true. I had an informant who told me about you and your family recently, but before I met you, I hadn't heard the Swan name in almost two decades."

"Just how old are you, Cullen?" She laughed at the rhetorical question. "Are you talking about Black? He followed me around like a puppy dog. Eventually, I had to put him down."

She gave an evil smirk. Well, that answered the question about where Black had ended up. My guess had been jail or that he'd finally run off with his profits of snitching on everyone else or that his new 'friends' in the Volturi had taken him out. Not Isabella.

"You killed Black?" Jasper spat at her and I gave him a glare. "What? He was useful at times."

"I didn't appreciate him watching me change from my balcony. Honestly guys, you need to find someone else to do your reconnaissance," she chided us all with a tsk and a wagging finger.

Honestly, I would have fed Black to my piranhas and given new meaning to feeding the fishes. Fucker, looking at my woman getting undressed and invading her space.

"I ended up feeding him to the dobermans Uncle Aro keeps. He wanted to act like a dog, so I treated him like one." She cackled, but kept going. "Dosed him with a tranquilizer, capped him in the knees and had Demi drop him in the doberman's pit. Then we sat and made bets on what they'd eat first. Asshat lost me ten grand."

I was, for about the thousandth time, torn between being aroused by Isabella and being terrified of her. Jasper didn't look much better, his face contorted uncomfortably, while Emmett was looking on gleefully.

"Well, that settles that then. Now, Cullen. My family. How did you know them?" She stands and starts pacing.

"Isabella, my father delivered you in the hospital. Honestly, my family has never had any other connection with yours besides that of mutual respect. My Grandfather tried to avoid anything that put him in the path of Charlie Swan and I know your dad did the same thing." I tried to be calm and understanding, but she left me confused and conflicted. What did she want from us?

"You're a liar." She laughed and it wasn't with humor. "I know your Grandfather's men killed my father. I know you, Edward Cullen, killed my mother before she even saw me with her own eyes. I know the truth. You just need to admit it!"

"Isabella, sweetheart," I tried to reach for her but she was raging. She pulled her knife and aimed its point at me once again. "If I wanted you dead, don't you think you would be already? If I'd killed your mother, what would stop me from killing you? You're in my office with my two most loyal men and no one around to save you. Think, Isabella."

"I don't... I don't understand. Uncle Aro said… Papa said…" She was wild and uncontrolled and before we could blink, she was gone from the office and back in her atrocious car, peeling out of my driveway.

"I tagged her car with a tracker. We'll be able to keep eyes on her for now." Jasper spoke in a low voice, edged with concern.

"Keep an eye on her." I was worried and they knew that, but I trusted Emmett and Jasper more than anyone so I knew they wouldn't let it get too far.

Two weeks passed before I heard anything from Isabella. This time there was no showing up at my house, demanding entry. There was a text message with a location and a time from a blocked number. It had to be her.

Emmett insisted that he'd scope the place out and find a sniper position to keep eyes on me. I was fully healed per the docs, but I was still weak and slow, so any kind of attack would put me at a disadvantage.

Jasper had a camera on my person as well as a bug in my ear so he could talk to me.

I met Isabella in the middle of Central Park near a pond. I sat on the bench for over an hour waiting for her, and when she showed up I didn't recognize her. Her hair was unnaturally blonde and she wore clothes that made her look uncomfortable. She walked with a hurried step, big sunglasses on her eyes, and a hat covering her head.

She sat next to me for barely a moment, slid something into my hand, stood and left abruptly.

Before Emmett could make his way to me, she was gone. I opened my hand to find a room key for a smaller, yet still high quality, hotel downtown.

Once again, I wasn't alone; being alone was a rarity these days. We parked behind the hotel and I made my way inside to the room number on the card. I let myself in, calling for Isabella as I went. She was there on the bed, laid out like a present. I wanted to unwrap her, to keep her forever.

"What's going on?" My voice was calm but firm.

"You were right," she whispered. "I can't believe they lied to me."

Even though we were inside, she still had the glasses on her face, though the wig was gone, and her hair was now her natural mahogany. I moved my hand to remove the glasses but she stopped me in my tracks.

"You can't," she cried, "you can't, because you'll kill him and then they'll kill you, and I'll lose you too."

I shushed her gently and climbed into bed with her, pulling her into my lap. She tried to move away from me, but I held her firmly in place. Each wiggle of her hips against mine caused a rather large problem in my pants, but this wasn't the time for that.

When I took the sunglasses off her face, I saw what she'd been hiding. Both of her eyes were bruised black and blue, her cheekbone was probably broken and as I went further down, I noticed the fingerprints around her neck.

"Take your clothes off," I demanded.

"Edward, I really don't think I'm up to climbing in bed with you right now." She was trying to placate me, joke around, and make this into not such a big deal.

She knew I wasn't joking when I didn't respond, and she finally began to disrobe. She was bruised everywhere. This was not how I was supposed to see Isabella's body for the first time.

I got angrier the more skin I saw, and I was practically unhinged by the time she was completely nude before me. She was magnificent and perfect, but every inch of her beautiful skin seemed to be covered in bruises or contusions.

"Jasper, call my father, have him meet Isabella at the cabin." I spoke lowly, knowing the device in my ear would pick up on it.

"Tell me Isabella, who did this?" I had my suspicions but I needed confirmation.

She shook her head no. I'd never seen her this demure before. "I can't, Edward, you can't."

"Was it Caius?" I rattled off, "Or was it your Uncle Aro? Did your own Papa have a hand in this, Isabella?"

She began to cry and I just held her carefully to my chest. Before long before her cries quieted. I wiped the tears away gently, thinking of all the ways I could make the people responsible for her pain pay for their crimes. I was broken out of my very detailed daydream by the even more pleasant sensation of her lips against mine. It was a full on, intense kiss, and she melted into my arms as I held her close, fitting perfectly against me. She reached to unbutton my shirt, pushing it off my shoulders.

"I did this. I did this to you." She peppered the scar from the gunshot wound on my shoulder with kisses and made her way to the one on my ribs. "I hurt you. I'm just like them."

I couldn't stop her... I didn't want to stop her, even though I knew I should. She pulled at my belt buckle and shimmied down my body, pulling my slacks with her. When she looked at me with those doe eyes, I couldn't stop her, it was involuntary, the response to her. It was like my body knew her while my heart was learning her still. When she took me in her warm mouth, I felt I had died and gone to heaven. It almost took me too long to compose myself, and I pushed her off of me carefully.

"Isabella, you're hurt, we shouldn't be doing this. Not now." I felt like dying as the words left my mouth, but it was the right thing to do. "Please," I implored her, not above begging at this point.

"Cullen, Edward, Edward, please. I... I just need..." She placed her hands on my thighs and they clenched under her touch, causing my cock to twitch in need. "I need to feel powerful. I need to feel in control. Please, baby, please give me this."

So I let her have her way with me. We were burning for each other, and before long, ended up tangled in the sheets, fully sated. I was convinced the earth had shaken and mountains had moved from the force of Isabella and I locked together in passionate embrace.

After paying off the concierge to forget seeing either one of us, I took Isabella to my father and had her examined. Her cheek was broken and her shoulder had been dislocated, but she'd managed to pop it back into place.

"I know you don't want to talk about it, but I have to know, Isabella. I can't fix it until you tell me." I held her hand while my father worked her over to the fullest of his medical ability.

"I started asking questions. Big mistake." She laughed in that humorless voice again and then continued, "I asked Caius what he knew about my family and he replayed the story we'd been told since childhood, that your family killed them and that was the end of that."

She flinched while my father touched her face, that damn cheekbone. She cursed, but kept going, "then I moved on to my Papa. I asked him if there were any pictures of my mother. I wanted to know what she looked like. He said there had been nothing left, that your family had set my home on fire and they were lucky to get me out before I died as well. The story didn't add up. You supposedly killed my mother in the hospital and then my father went to your Grandfather, taking out his men before they killed him? But where was I? I had questions, and I questioned things I never questioned before."

She was out of breath when she finished, and I squeezed her hand in comfort. "It's okay. So they didn't like you asking questions, then what happened?"

"I um, I overheard my papa, Marcus, I overheard him talking with Aro. They didn't seem pleased. They were talking about how to cover it all up with me. They admitted to everything, Edward. My father didn't want to work with them anymore so they threatened my mother," tears sprang to her eyes as she spoke. "My father wanted to work for your Grandfather, it was safer, yet still part of this illegal life we all lead. When Aro found out, he killed them. He killed them both and took me for himself."

I had feared that something like this would happen. I should have kept her with me but she was too independent and fearless to listen to me.

"Jane, Caius's sister, she found me eavesdropping and dragged me into the room by my hair. There her and her minions beat me to a pulp while Aro, Marcus and Caius sat watching. Caius is the one who choked me nearly to death. Papa, I mean Marcus, broke my cheekbone, and I knew I had to get out of there. Luckily Demetri and Felix helped me escape. If they hadn't, I really think I would be dead."

The room was silent. One thing was certain, each member of the Volturi family was going to die, and it was going to be at my hand.

Isabella stayed with me for weeks, that turned into months. She healed, she worked out in my gym, beating punching bags to their death. She was quiet, but when she was with me, she was alive. She was mine and she was never leaving me, that was for sure.

Things weren't as easy having Isabella in my home as I imagined they would be. She had been raised like a princess but was a deadly as any soldier. She didn't want to be protected and challenged me every time I made a decision without consulting her.

She had wanted to go out, just to get out of the house, with Emmett's wife, Rosalie, and my sister Alice. She hadn't asked or cleared it with me but chose to just take a car out of the expansive garage and make her way to the gate. Jasper alerted me to her escape attempt and blocked her from exiting the gate, locking it down completely. She then drove my hundred thousand dollar car into the gate trying to get out that way. When that didn't work and all that was left was mangled metal, she stomped back toward the house in her heeled boots and pointed her gun at me, standing in the middle of my office.

"You can't tell me what I can and cannot do. You can't lock me up here. I'll kill you before I'm someone else's prisoner." Her hands became more unsteady the longer she spoke.

"I'm not keeping you prisoner, Isabella," I tried to soothe her, "I'm just trying to keep you safe. You know if any of the Volturis were to see you outside of these walls they'd kill you or worse, take you back to that hell-hole you called a home."

"They could try but I wouldn't let that happen," she bit out with complete confidence.

"Or is that what you want? Do you want to go back to your _fiance_ ," I spat the title currently held by Caius Volturi, wanting more than ever to put a bullet in his head.

Isabella was mine and no one else would ever have her.

"I ought to shoot you in the other shoulder for that idiotic comment, you stupid, arrogant son of a bitch," she dropped the gun on my desk.

She didn't try to leave after that; instead, she invited my family members here more often than I ever had. This place had been my sanctuary and I usually didn't have people, except guards, in it more than was socially required. But now, my family was happy, Isabella was happy and things moved swimmingly after that.

Six months after Isabella had come home with me, Jasper came barrelling into the bedroom with news. It wasn't the greatest time for an interruption, as I was lying between Isabella's legs, feasting on her, and just as she was about to orgasm, she yelled Jasper's name not mine. I flung the sheet off over my head, reached into the bedside table and pointed my gun at him.

"Speak, quickly." Jasper gulped and muttered an apology before leaving the room, stating that he'd be in my office when I was ready.

Isabella and I dressed and met Jasper in the office, his face still red with embarrassment. Emmett stood to the side, biting his fist to keep from laughing.

"Now, what was so important that you needed to interrupt Edward's breakfast this morning, Jasper?" Isabella spoke in her scary calm voice. Honestly, she was probably better at this whole thing than I was. I was a shoot first, ask questions later kind of guy; she always had a plan.

"Embry and Brady found Caius. He's been in and out of the club, using and abusing women. We've got him at the warehouse and Aro's already put out word that he's missing." Jasper spoke quietly, never once making eye contact.

Isabella smirked at me, and I gave her one back. We'd been working on a plan for weeks on how to end the Volturi family once and for all. They had scorned us, badly. We would avenge Isabella's family, we would make good on the promise to the IRA to avenge Peter's death, and we would make them pay for Isabella's pain as well.

She slinked back to the bedroom, dressing for the occasion in all black. Her leather pants and knee high boots would be my undoing.

Emmett drove us to the warehouse. There, Caius Volturi was hung by his feet, upside down, cursing everyone who was breathing. Isabella came out swinging, using a bat she had brought with her to go straight for Caius's ribs.

"Your family killed my family and then they wanted me to marry you? What is wrong with you, you sick fuck," she screamed as she swung.

"Did you think I was dead? No one came looking for me, I was your family for over twenty years and now I'm nothing?" She took the bat to his face, and I saw a few molars fall to the floor.

"You wanted to cum in your pants the night I shot Edward? Are you cumming in your pants now while I beat the hell out of you?" she sneered, and Caius mumbled through his probably broken jaw.

"Don't even try to talk to me, you creep. You started coming in my room when I turned thirteen. I was to be your wife, you said. As a Volturi I was expected to do things, unfathomable things, but no more. You have no more control over my life, because yours is over."

Seeing Isabella like this was sexy and it made me want her even more, but it also made my heart tingle in a way I wasn't accustomed to. She had been hurt and betrayed but I swore in this moment, she would never know betrayal again.

"Marry me," I cooed in her ear while she dragged her knife down Caius's arm, causing him to bleed all over the floor.

"Now that's my kind of proposal. We might have to change it up for the kids later, but I'll take it." She smirked and mimicked her movement on his other arm.

"That a yes?" I grinned as she started to carve her name into his thigh.

"That's a hell yes, Cullen." She handed me the knife and stepped back to lean against the wall.

"This is for Peter," I whispered in Caius's ear as I slit his throat. While he bled to death, I took Isabella's knife and carved the IRA symbol into his forehead. His death was retribution for the cause. It wouldn't bring Peter back, but he'd been avenged.

"Leave him where they'll find him, quickly if possible," I ordered Brady and Embry. They'd be getting major bonuses from me when the time came. "Let's go, Isabella."

We'd gone straight to Tiffany's, where Isabella had picked out a modest four carat princess cut ring in platinum. I wanted to go bigger but she threatened me with her knife. Then we made our way home and didn't resurface the rest of the week.

News of Caius Volturi's death spread like wildfire and it was rumored that every Volturi member, young or old, whether in the States or in Italy, would be coming to New York for the funeral.

That was our plan.

Isabella had told me that when Aro's mother had died, the same procedure had been followed. Every member of the family, blood or extended, had to be in attendance. Anyone who didn't show, ended up at the bottom of the Hudson.

This way there would be no more grudges, no more paybacks, no more looking over our shoulders. The Volturi family was going to be eliminated in the biggest organized crime massacre known to man.

The day started gloomy and ominous, the sky dark and dismal looking as a storm brewed in the distance. Isabella and I had many plans to finalize. First we'd found out that the local priest hadn't been good enough for Aro Volturi, so none of the church members would be in attendance. He'd brought special people in from Italy to oversee his son's funeral. Next, we spoke to the Father and church budget committee and offered to rebuild and pay for any damages that were to occur. The Holy Father wasn't very impressed by our proposal, but he was less impressed with the Volturi crime syndicate as a whole.

After that, Emmett and Jasper wired the entire church with C-4, with a remote trigger. We watched from a cafe across from the church, not hiding, but in plain sight, as the lower members arrived, drug dealers and cookers of meth, then the higher ups. Isabella grabbed onto my hand when Demetri and Felix made their way into the church. I knew she wanted to warn them to stay away as they had saved her before, but I couldn't have any loose ends and she knew that. When Marcus and Aro arrived, they spotted Isabella at once. Marcus made a move to step towards her, but Aro stopped him in his tracks.

I lifted a hand to wave at them, letting them know she was with me, and smirked as they walked to their deaths.

We gave it another ten minutes before we left the cafe and made our way to a smaller chapel across town. There, Isabella and I were married on the day the Volturi fell, once and for all.

When we made it to our hotel room for the evening, it was all over the news. The Volturi family was all dead.

According to the news, it seemed that the church had scheduled plans for renovation for that day, many months prior. When the abrupt funeral had taken place, no one thought to check on the plans. It was a tragic accident in which not a single member, young or old, of the Volturi family had managed to crawl out of the burning and crumbling church. Rumors about the Cullen involvement in the Volturi deaths were rampant, especially after it came out that Isabella had married me. Sadly for those rumors, we had solid alibis and nothing could be proven otherwise.

Isabella curled into me, still in her wedding dress, as we watched the footage of the burning building. The Volturi had paid with their lives for what they had done to both of our families.

Now, we were one family. Together, we had become something stronger, something fearless, something that no one else would cross.

 **A/N: Please leave the writer encouragement in the form of a review and a thank you for entering our contest.**


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